You know, I feel like I should have been more irritated about the fridging of Olivia, but 1) it was so entirely obvious that it wasn't going to stick, and 2) they fridged *Peter* within like 45 seconds of his making it back to the present. Plus they've killed off (versions of) both Charlie and Broyles. I've concluded that the show is pretty much equal opportunity in its mayhem, which... has its drawbacks, granted, but does stave off a certain amount of feminist bitterness. Heh.
Right there with you. Especially if this restores the show to round-the-clock OLIVIA DUNHAM IS AWESOME status, I am okay with what happened in the finale.
Especially if this restores the show to round-the-clock OLIVIA DUNHAM IS AWESOME status, I am okay with what happened in the finale.
EXACTLY.
I have been having semi-thinky thoughts since Friday about the ways in which the show has, since the very beginning and CERTAINLY since the S1 finale, handled Olivia's and Peter's very different roles in the show. And I don't have time to work through it all right now (hellooooo end of the semester), but the placeholder version goes something like this: Olivia is and has always been the main CHARACTER, and from that point of view Peter is just the plucky sidekick; but Peter has always (literally always, way before it was revealed) been the main PLOT ENGINE (his abduction is the reason for The Pattern), and from that point of view Olivia (in both universes!) is the badass perpetually stuck in the position of trying to clean up a mess that she did not make. Which is to say that the show's wobbling back and forth between focusing on Olivia and focusing on Peter is among other things symptomatic of a larger-scale wobble between character and plot. (Watched all together, I suspect the sense of being occasionally out-of-balance will be somewhat less pronounced.)
Watching so far all in a giant chunk, yeah, that. Or more...I tend to think of Olivia and Peter's stories being so intrinsically intertwined (and I do not mean in the shippy sense) so that the shifts in focus are...um...it's like they shed light on both for me?
Yup. I mean, I had that reaction in real-time--by the time the final scene rolled around I was totally over it. I mean, obviously it wasn't going to stick--she's the star! and like you said, it's not like they don't kill people in this show--I just chafe at it being all about the choices Peter makes, and some of that is holdover annoyance from the longer plot arc that kept trying to set us up for 'which Olivia will Peter choose?!?' which was a plot I found deeply uninteresting and I'm glad they didn't really go there in the end. I'm over the moon that he got disappeared and am really excited to have the Olivias together and Peter at least temporarily out of the picture for crucial decision-making.
To be honest I was most worried they'd kill off Astrid in this season, and am VERY RELIEVED they have not done that, even if I think she deserves her own plot arcs and things. Basically, I am feeling very YAY SHOW and WOW DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING and OK BUT WHAT NOW??
holdover annoyance from the longer plot arc that kept trying to set us up for 'which Olivia will Peter choose?!?
I think maybe it is because I watched it all in one big chunk, that it never felt like that to me. More, that plotline read more to me about both Olivias and Peter grappling with the meaning of self and identity and choices both made and taken away.
Though I suspect I would have had far less patience and leaned towards a less favorable reading had I been watching week to week with that long to wait on it to all play out.
OMG they better not ever kill Astrid. I will throw such a tantrum.
I just chafe at it being all about the choices Peter makes, and some of that is holdover annoyance from the longer plot arc that kept trying to set us up for 'which Olivia will Peter choose?!?' which was a plot I found deeply uninteresting and I'm glad they didn't really go there in the end.
Right -- though, honestly, I was never convinced that the show was going in that direction; perhaps because Peter has always (to my surprise and delight) been the more communicative and emotionally forthright character, I took at face value his insistence that our Olivia was the one that he wanted. I read Olivia's anxiety as being much more about her own difficulty expressing her own emotions and trusting other people (two elements of her character set up from literally the first episode of the show) than about the direction of the plot.
As for watching the two Olivias interact: SIGN ME UP. And ohhhhhhh, Astrid -- ♥! Really hoping they'll find more for her to do next season. Their progress in that direction has been steady, if slow, so I'm hopeful!
That and the next time we saw Sam Weiss the text pretty much slapped him down so that he had to admit he was making educated guesses but they were now off the track of what he thought was supposed to happen.
Which makes me why the writers ever have had him the pronouncement in the first place, but whatever.
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EXACTLY.
I have been having semi-thinky thoughts since Friday about the ways in which the show has, since the very beginning and CERTAINLY since the S1 finale, handled Olivia's and Peter's very different roles in the show. And I don't have time to work through it all right now (hellooooo end of the semester), but the placeholder version goes something like this: Olivia is and has always been the main CHARACTER, and from that point of view Peter is just the plucky sidekick; but Peter has always (literally always, way before it was revealed) been the main PLOT ENGINE (his abduction is the reason for The Pattern), and from that point of view Olivia (in both universes!) is the badass perpetually stuck in the position of trying to clean up a mess that she did not make. Which is to say that the show's wobbling back and forth between focusing on Olivia and focusing on Peter is among other things symptomatic of a larger-scale wobble between character and plot. (Watched all together, I suspect the sense of being occasionally out-of-balance will be somewhat less pronounced.)
Or, uh. Something like that.
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Now I'm not making sense :)
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To be honest I was most worried they'd kill off Astrid in this season, and am VERY RELIEVED they have not done that, even if I think she deserves her own plot arcs and things. Basically, I am feeling very YAY SHOW and WOW DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING and OK BUT WHAT NOW??
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I think maybe it is because I watched it all in one big chunk, that it never felt like that to me. More, that plotline read more to me about both Olivias and Peter grappling with the meaning of self and identity and choices both made and taken away.
Though I suspect I would have had far less patience and leaned towards a less favorable reading had I been watching week to week with that long to wait on it to all play out.
OMG they better not ever kill Astrid. I will throw such a tantrum.
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Right -- though, honestly, I was never convinced that the show was going in that direction; perhaps because Peter has always (to my surprise and delight) been the more communicative and emotionally forthright character, I took at face value his insistence that our Olivia was the one that he wanted. I read Olivia's anxiety as being much more about her own difficulty expressing her own emotions and trusting other people (two elements of her character set up from literally the first episode of the show) than about the direction of the plot.
As for watching the two Olivias interact: SIGN ME UP. And ohhhhhhh, Astrid -- ♥! Really hoping they'll find more for her to do next season. Their progress in that direction has been steady, if slow, so I'm hopeful!
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Which makes me why the writers ever have had him the pronouncement in the first place, but whatever.